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Institutions of higher education are grappling with challenges such as declining enrollment rates, increased scrutiny of degree value, and a pivot towards career-focused and alternative credential programs. These pressures, compounded by technological advancements and shifting societal trends, present both obstacles and opportunities. Our team of higher education consultants partners with educational leaders in crafting strategies that not only meet today’s demands but also lay the groundwork for future success. We focus on boosting student success, ensuring financial health, and sparking innovation to help institutions navigate complex changes with strategic, evidence-backed solutions. By working collaboratively to implement effective higher education strategy and planning—from improving student outcomes and identifying operational efficiencies to integrating AI and advancing digital transformation—we’re helping universities adapt and excel, no matter what the future holds.
U.S. Higher Education Faces a Moment of Truth
Covid-19 may be the last straw for many long-struggling schools. Survival will require extreme steps in the near term, and plenty of innovation over the longer term.
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Universities are reacting with determination and creativity to the new challenges they face. Budget deficits have mushroomed following sudden declines in endowment values, deep cuts in education funding and limits on tuition increases.
Competition in the global job market is making new programs, new training and new models of instruction essential in order for students to obtain gainful employment after graduation. And amidst a fluctuating student population, universities are harnessing new technologies, such as e-learning, as a way to reach even more students.
These pressures place core academic missions of teaching, research and outreach at risk. To help bring the focus back to schools' core missions, Bain is helping institutions get back on the path to success:
- We are working to redesign the university model to make higher education a reality for more students across the US.
- We closely examine school operations and organizations to determine which administrative support functions, and redundancies, are diverting scarce resources away from higher education's core purpose.
- We are finding ways to rationalize traditionally decentralized and highly complex organization structures with widely disparate service levels and unworkable spans of control.
